From Navy SEAL to reality show star

Ex-sailor joins NBC program that teams celebrities with operators

Celebrity contestants and special operatives compete in a mission challenge on NBC's reality series "Stars Earn Stripes." Brent Gleeson is the second from left with his leg over the edge of the boat.
— NBC

Celebrity contestants and special operatives compete in a mission challenge on NBC's reality series "Stars Earn Stripes." Brent Gleeson is the second from left with his leg over the edge of the boat.
/ NBC

After Brent Gleeson ended his career as a Navy SEAL, executing more than 100 combat missions in Iraq and numerous covert operations in the Horn of Africa, he thought his days of dangerous missions were over.

He certainly never thought he’d re-create his time in the military while being paired with former athletes, entertainers and actors.

But the 35-year-old San Diegan is one of eight former military operatives and first responders in the upcoming NBC reality program, “Stars Earn Stripes.” The show is a competition-format program that pairs eight celebrities with the experts to go on realistic missions.

“It was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had,” Gleeson said. “I don’t watch reality TV, but I know it’s mostly about bickering and nonsense and trash-talking, so I went into it with a little trepidation. It’s very serious, and the purpose of it is very serious.”

Gleeson, a recently engaged father of a 6-year-old boy, turned producers down twice, thinking he wouldn’t have the time, before finally agreeing to go on.

David Hurwitz, the show’s executive producer, said he knew Gleeson would be a good choice.

“He’s intelligent, he’s articulate and he embodies what we as normal citizens think of when we think of U.S. Navy SEALs,” he said. “He has the résumé. He can speak to experiences the rest of us only see in the movies.”

The show bills itself as a first-of-its-kind program that will raise money for eight charities, including the Wounded Warrior Project and Pat Tillman Foundation. There will be four episodes, totaling six hours of airtime, that will run Monday evenings starting Monday.

Operatives will prepare their celebrity teammates, then perform missions with their partners while competing against other pairs.

Filming for the program, co-hosted by retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, took place in June.

Gleeson, a Texas native and Southern Methodist University graduate, joined the Navy in 2000 after working a year as a financial analyst for a commercial real estate company. In September 2000, he came to San Diego for SEAL training after shocking his friends and family by enlisting in the military.

Gleeson said he was one of 23 to successfully complete a class that started with about 250 men, and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks happened right as he was beginning advanced training.

“That’s when everything got real,” Gleeson said.

In early 2002, Gleeson was assigned to SEAL Team 5, and he did two deployments. The first, in Iraq, involved capture or kill missions in conjunction with the Central Intelligence Agency. Gleeson said his team was the first task unit in Baghdad in the spring of 2003.

After being honorably discharged in 2004, Gleeson became a co-founder of Internet Marketing Inc., a Scripps Ranch company that focuses on online marketing and has about 50 employees in San Diego, Las Vegas and Miami.

Gleeson’s television debut came last year on the Discovery Channel’s “One Man Army,” an opportunity he stumbled upon after getting an email from a friend. When the casting call went out for “Stars Earn Stripes,” the talent agency in charge of “One Man Army” remembered Gleeson and asked his permission to pitch him for the new show.

“I said yes, but basically I said, ‘I don’t have time to do this, but let’s see where it goes,’ ” Gleeson said.

Hurwitz said about 1,000 people applied for eight spots, and Gleeson was exactly what they wanted.

It took some convincing, but Hurwitz finally persuaded Gleeson to leave San Diego and spend close to a month filming and living out of a hotel in Woodland Hills.

“Thank God, because the show is going to be huge,” Gleeson said. “I’m glad I did it.”

Gleeson said he hopes his participation will help generate publicity for his business, raise more money for charity and encourage more Americans to join the military and attempt to graduate from special operations training.

And while the final results of the show are a secret, Clark called Gleeson’s performance “totally outstanding.”

Gleeson showed “great character, great leadership, great skills and was a great teammate,” said the onetime West Point valedictorian, Rhodes scholar and 2004 presidential candidate. “He was terrific. I think the Navy SEAL community will be extremely proud of Brent Gleeson. He did that well.”